Howzat? Indian enthusiasts play the gentleman’s game in Russia

Mar 29, 2013

Elena Krovvidi

RIR

A group photo of the Russian team which was represented in a tournament in Bulgaria in 2012. Source: personal archive.

Cricket in Russia is no longer played with tennis balls as it used to be in the 1980s, but despite the improvement in infrastructure, poor funding and lack of local support hold back the development of the game in the country.

March is
the last month of the forced wait for the Indians who’ve got itchy feet to
resume the cricket season in Russia
after a long winter-break. This is not a problem for their compatriots back in India who can
play the gentleman’s game all year round. However, for the members of the
Indian community in Russia,
March is the time to brush the dust off their cricket bats and get ready for
the action.

The Moscow State
University’s (MSU) large
and spacious stadium where most cricket matches in the capital take place is
finally clear of thick layers of snow, under which it has been buried for a
good 4 or 5 months, and the sports spirit has been awakened. The members of the teams consisting mostly of
Indian businessmen are preparing for new battles on the pitch. Those who don’t
bat, bowl or field, contribute to the game as umpires or enthusiastic
spectators!

The Indian
cricket community proves that strength is not exactly in numbers but more in
spirit. A rather small numbered group, it still managed to get in the media
limelight (for example, the fashionable Russian magazine “Bolshoy gorod”) as
one of the city’s attractions and even approached the country’s sports ministry
with a request to be included in the list of official national sports.

Although
the centre of cricket life in Russia
now is in Moscow, the game initially wasn’t
confined to just one city and brought its allure as far as to the far eastern island of Sakhalin. The Sakhalin Cricket Club was
a place where cricket traditions were vibrant and the players indulged in the
game with gusto and passion until the sad moment of its dissolution.

One of the
memorable events for the club, which had a truly international XI with Indian,
South African, English, Dutch and Russian players, was the victory over the
Hokkaido International Business Association (HIBA) team in a 2001 match, and
the rematch that followed in 2002 on the island of Hokkaido where the Japanese
side won by the narrow margin.

The members
of the club also travelled all the way from Sakhalin to Delhi for an exhibition match.

Cricket
aficionados in Russia
have had to overcome different obstacles. There were problems with finding a
stadium to rent. At first, the cricket matches were played at the Moscow’s Dinamo stadium.
But then an agreement was made with the MSU, where the university’s stadium
could be used for holding cricket matches when it’s not in use by the students.
But even though the cricketers in Russia are happy to have a big and
modern stadium at their disposal, they are still on a shaky terrain not having
their own cricket pitch and having to make compromises.

However,
there are bigger issues that cricket in Russia has to face. At the moment,
the situation within the Indian cricket community in Moscow is rather controversial. The Indian
cricket lovers are split into two groups not connected with each other: a smaller
organisation “Cricket Russia”
officially recognised by the International Cricket Council (ICC) and a larger
unofficial cricket organisation “BCCR.”

Although
the two cricket organisations have their differences, there is one thing that
all the Indians who live in Russia
and are interested in cricket whole-heartedly agree about – the necessity of
promoting the game in the country and engaging more locals to actively
participate in it.

Abhijat
Sawarkar, a veteran cricket enthusiast, thinks that cricket has a potential for
growth in Russia
but should be given a boost. “Today, the cricket infrastructure is far more
advanced than it used to be for anyone who is interested,” Sawarkar says.
“Teams are better organised, the tournament is well conducted and availability
of the ground is fixed well in advance.”

He believes
that development of the sport in schools should be an area of focus.

“If the
younger generation is developed for this, then a few years down the line there
will be Russian teams playing cricket,” Sawarkar adds.

Tanveer
Khan, an experienced cricket player, points out the lack of funding as well as
not enough interest in cricket on the part of Russians. “In my opinion, cricket
as a sport can have a mass appeal only if the locals not just our expats and
people from cricket playing countries take an active part in it. Funding is a
huge problem since we have no big sponsors and it is completely self
financing,” Khan says.

Despite the
problems that the Indian cricket community in Russia has to tackle, the interest
for these kinds of sports is on the rise. Despite the initially unfavourable
conditions such as cold climate or lack of pronounced interest towards the game
compared to the kinds of sports that set the nation on fire like ice hockey or
football, cricket carved a niche for itself among the Indian expats in Moscow
and serves as one of their favourite recreations as well as an essential part
of their social life.

For the
Indians living in Russia,
cricket is more than just a sport for the sake of sports. It’s also a way of
bringing a bit of India to
Moscow; a
pretext for catching up with old friends that one otherwise loses contact
with due to the hectic rhythm of the city’s life. It’s an opportunity to exchange the latest
gossip, meet people and given the Indian flair for enterprise, a chance for
some networking that might just come in handy.